SOCIO-AFFECTIVE PATERNITY AND INHERITANCE RIGHTS UNDER BRAZILIAN LAW

Abstract

The present work analyzes the legal effects of the recognition of socio-affective paternity in the scope of Brazilian succession law, investigating how the affective bonds built by coexistence, care and daily affection produce patrimonial and existential consequences comparable to those resulting from biological filiation. The research is based on the observation that the Federal Constitution of 1988, by enshrining the principles of human dignity, equality among children and the best interest of the child, established the normative bases for the full recognition of socio-affectivity as an autonomous source of parenthood, with all the legal effects resulting from it. In this way, the doctrinal and jurisprudential construction that culminated in the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal No. 898.060/SC by the Federal Supreme Court is examined, when the thesis of multiparenthood was consolidated and any hierarchy between biological and affective bonds was definitively removed. It also analyzes the role of Provision No. 63/2017 of the National Council of Justice in the debureaucratization of the extrajudicial recognition of socio-affective filiation, as well as the impacts of this recognition on the child's personality rights, especially with regard to family identity, the right to a name and the sense of belonging. The work also examines the conflicts between biological and socio-affective filiation in hereditary disputes and the criteria adopted by the Judiciary for their solution, concluding that there is a need for specific legislative regulation that provides greater legal certainty to contemporary families. The research adopts the deductive method, based on bibliographic research of primary and secondary sources, including legislation, doctrine, jurisprudence and official documentation.